I thought I’d talk about a favourite album of mine as I feel it has interesting relations to sound and the creative process.
Laughing Stock is the fifth and final album of the band Talk Talk, though at this point the band only contained members Mark Hollis and Lee Harris. It was produced by Tim Friese-Greene and was released in 1991 on Verve Records.
The album is attributed to the art-rock genre and ambiguous label of post-rock, however, in my opinion, it is an album that does not benefit from a genre label.
Below is Runeii, the closing track of the album.
“Before you play two notes, learn how to play one note, y’know. And that, it’s as simple as that really. And don’t play one note unless you’ve got a reason to play it.”
The creation of Laughing Stock was unconventional. Over the year-long recording sessions around 50 musicians contributed, though only 18 guests featured on the final album with much of the recorded material discarded.
According to Talk Talk’s manager, Keith Aspden, each musician was asked to “improvise on sections without hearing the full track. With just a basic chord structure at most, they were encouraged to try out anything their hearts encouraged them to, and then, thanks to the emerging digital technology, any results felt appropriate were employed, sometimes in places for which they had never originally been envisioned”.
While creating the album, they would often work in darkness, with windows covered, clocks removed from the walls, the only light from a strobe.
After, the improvised performances were arranged and overdubbed, with the addition of more concrete sounds such as a water heater and kettle. Looping and sampling were also used.
Mark Hollis, the singer, multi-instrumentalist and ‘audio-auteur’ of Talk Talk cited CAN’s Tago Mago and Duke Ellington/John Coltrane’s In a Sentimental Mood as inspirations.
One of my favourite things about this album is the dynamic control throughout. Ascension Day is the loudest track on the album and ends in complete abruptness as the next song After The Flood begins. The album begins and ends in perfect silence.
The technique of improvising and then arranging at a later point is an interesting way of working and is something I wish to explore in the future. When coming across new techniques I often record around 20 minutes of experiments as a means of remembering the sounds that could be achieved from the creative process, perhaps I could use these recordings in other work.